WHAT IS CLEAN OR LEAN BULKING?
Most of us are familiar with bulking. Whether you’ve been eating
meal after meal of chicken and rice, or drinking mass gainer shakes – everyone who heads to the gym has
experimented with a bulk in order to pack on mass.
The problems start when you begin to build body fat as well as
muscle. You have also heard about dirty bulking. Well a ‘dirty’ bulk is not
healthy, but many bodybuilders might experiment with one to gain mass at any
cost. Doing so is simply not a
cerebral approach to building muscle though since it is much harder to get rid
of excess fat once you gain it. Following this, they’ll have to
perform a tough cutting cycle. Hence, dirty
bulking is an inefficient way to go about improving your body composition since
getting rid of large amounts of body fat is very time-consuming and not a fun
experience.
Clean or lean bulking is a far more efficient way to try and build muscle
mass. By focusing on building muscle with minimal amount of fat, you may see
slightly slower results but you won’t need to go through a tough cut. Therefore, this guide is going to teach you about the
principles of lean bulking, as well as how to create your own nutrition,
training, and supplement regimen to build muscle without gaining excessive
amounts of fat tissue.
WHEN
TO START FOR LEAN BULK:
First you should confirm that you are lean enough to
start lean bulking. Because the fatter you are, the
worse your calorie partitioning will
be. And the worse your calorie partitioning is, the better your body will be at
storing excess calories in the form of fat rather than muscle.
When you start while in an already
fat state, you’re going to have problems like your ratio of
muscle to fat gains will suck, and you’ll end up gaining more body fat (and less
muscle) than you should be, you need to spend lot more time in cutting phase to
get rid off that huge amount of fat. Hence, you should always make sure they
are lean enough before starting to bulk.
The
ideal body fat percentage to start lean bulking is question: For Men it should
be 12% or less and for women it should be 22% or less.
If you are within these ideal
body fat ranges, you’re good to go. If, however, you are above these body fat
ranges, then you must focus on losing fat until you reach this ideal level of
fat percentage. To reach there, you should be in caloric deficit (mostly from
carbohydrates) like 10-20% below your maintenance level, get sufficient amounts
of protein (about 1 gram/pound of body weight), and train hard with a properly
designed workout plan. Once you reach that fat percentage level, then you can
star your lean bulking.
Lets
talk about some nutrition basics.
MACRONUTRIENTS
The three main energy-containing macro nutrients are proteins,
carbohydrates and fats.
This energy comes in the form of heat called calories; carbohydrates and proteins contain
approximately 4 calories per gram, while fats contain about 9 calories per gram.
Water is also categorized as a macronutrient, but it is devoid of energy
(calories).
1.
PROTEIN:
Proteins are an essential macronutrient in terms of aiding the
building/repairing process of muscle tissue. For this reason, many bodybuilders
and fitness enthusiasts alike often eat a large amount of protein compared to
the average individual. 01 gram of
protein contains 4 calories.
All proteins are made up of molecules called amino acids, which
can be thought of as the building blocks of proteins. Amino acids bond together
to form 3D structures that give proteins their specific functions in the body. When
you eat protein, the body breaks down the amino acids into smaller peptide
chains and individual amino acids and puts them to work.
TOP PROTEIN SUPPLEMENTS UNDER 5000 INR
2.
CARBOHYDRATE
Carbohydrates are molecules composed of carbon, hydrogen, and
oxygen. They are usually categorized as either simple sugars or complex. Simple
carbohydrates include commonplace household ingredients such as table sugar
(sucrose), dextrose (glucose), corn syrup, fruit sugar (fructose), molasses,
etc. Sources of complex carbohydrates include grains like whole wheat, oats,
barley, quinoa, rice, as well as foods like lentils, potatoes, and others.
Carbohydrate works as fuel for the human body. 01 gram of carbohydrate contains 4 calories.
3.
FAT
Many people assume that the more fat they eat, the fatter they
will get. Fortunately, that is not exactly how the body works and fats are
quite an essential part of everyone’s diet.
Fats are essential for maintaining cell structure integrity and
play a variety of roles with regards to cellular mechanisms. Therefore, fats
are imperative, especially for active individuals.
Fatty acids come in either
saturated or unsaturated forms. The reasons certain fat sources, like butter
and margarine, stay solid at room temperature is because the melting point is
elevated compared to unsaturated fat sources, like olive oil. This is to say
that saturated fat sources have a higher melting point than unsaturated fat
sources. Best sources of fats are olive oil, avocados, fish oil, chia seeds,
nuts, peanut butter, flex seeds etc. 01
gram of fat contains 09 calories.
MICRONUTRIENTS
AND FIBER
Micronutrients are constituents of foods that don’t provide
caloric energy but still perform a range of physiological duties and are
paramount to maintaining optimal health; these include vitamins, minerals,
polyphenols, and organic acids. Many of these compounds serve
as antioxidants in humans, which are crucial for reducing oxidative
stress.
Most people don’t need to scrutinously track their micronutrient
intake so long as they are eating a generous amount of fruits and vegetables
throughout the day, Also, certain supplements, like multivitamins, can help
ensure your meeting your micronutrient needs.
Fiber is another important component. Both soluble and insoluble
fibers aid the digestion process, help maintain intestinal integrity,
assist with mineral balance, improve heart health and improve blood lipids.
Recommended Supplements for lean bulking
HOW TO CALCULATE YOUR CALORIES
FOR LEAN BULKING:
1. Calculate your Basal
Metabolic Rate (BMR) by multiplying your bodyweight (in pounds) by 14
or you can simply calculate with the help of
an online BMR calculator.
2. Determine your Total
Daily Expenditure (TDE)/Maintenance Calories by using any online
maintenance calorie calculator or you can simply multiply below numbers with
your BMR according to your activity level:
o For Sedentary — Sitting at a desk most the day with no formal
exercise → Multiply BMR by 1.2
o Moderately Active — Moderate exercise 1 to 3 times per week with
little activity otherwise → Multiply BMR by 1.3
o Highly Active — Rigorous exercise 3 to 5 times per week and modest
activity otherwise → Multiply BMR by 1.4
- Extremely Active — Rigrous exercise 4 to 6 times per week and
a labor-intensive day job (construction, landscaping, etc.) → Multiply BMR by 1.7
Since our
goal is to build muscle, you need to be in a caloric surplus (particularly on
training days). On rest days you can cut down your calories from carbohydrates.
So now the question is how big should the surplus be? How many
calories should add to start lean bulking?
The ideal caloric surplus needs to be small enough to
keep fat gains to a realistic minimum, but yet big enough to still maximize a
person’s achievable rate of muscle growth. So here are the ideal calorie
surplus what tend to be best for most of the people:
For
Men: 200-250 calories above maintenance.
For
Women: 100-125 calories above maintenance.
For example, if your estimated
maintenance level is 2000 calories, a man would eat 2200-2250 calories per day
and a woman would eat 2100-2125 calories per day. These would be the initial
calories to add on some muscle or ideal point to start lean bulk.
At this point, you have got your figure to start your lean bulk.
You should take these calories from Macronutrients viz. protein, carbohydrates
and fats. Now lets talk about how much protein, carbohydrate and fats are
required during your muscle building phase:
·
Well your protein ranges between 0.7 gm to 01 gm per
pound of body weight. I would highly recommend to start from the lowest figure
ie. 0.7 grams.
·
Fats ranges somewhere between 20-25% of total
calories
·
And rest of the calories would be coming from your
carbohydrates.
Let’s take an example, suppose a
person is 25 years of age, weighing 65 kgs (144 pounds) and height 5’7”. Then
the entire calculation for lean bulking would be:
BMR= 144* 12= 1728 cal
Maintenance calorie (suppose he
is moderately active)= 1728*1.3= 2246 cal
Now this 2246 are the calories
that are required daily to maintain his current body weight.
Now for lean bulking he needs to
add 250 calories more to his maintainence calories that means his intial
caloric intake would become 2246+250= 2496 calories.
Now lets calculate the
macronutrients:
Protein = 0.7* body weight (in
pound)=0.7*144 lbs= 101 gms approx (101*4 gms=404 calories)
Fat= 25% of 2496= 624 calories=
624/9 gms= 69 grams
Carbohydrates= 2496- (calories
from fat and protein)= 2496- (624+404)= 1468 caories= 1468/4gms= 367 gms
Hence, this guy has to consume 101gms of protein, 69 gms of fat and 367
gms of carbohydrates on training days whereas on non training day 200
calories can be removed from carbohydrates. This figure need not be changed
until hits the plateau. He then add 200-250 gms more calories and apply the
same procedure to find out his daily macronutrient intake.
To weigh your food you need to purchase a kitchen weighing machine. you can buy it from amazon by clicking below image
IDEAL RANGE OF MUSCLE GAIN DURING LEAN BULKING:
You should really be looking to gain 0.25 to 0.5 pound of muscle
per week with minimul fat percentage. This seems to look slow but remember you
are gaining quality muscle and less fat. Also keep in mind more experienced
lifter or advanced lifters may progress even slowly especially if they are
already near their genetic/natural potential in terms of muscle mass. However,
beginners may be able to add on even 2 pounds of muscle per week for first few
months or even more.
HOW
SHOULD YOU TRACK YOUR PROGRESS?
Well its simple, just use weighing machine and weekly or
biweekly photograph of your body. Take picture from the same positions/area
under same lighting and weighing yourself on an empty stomach first in the morning.
However, sometimes the weigh fluctuates due to certain factor so need not rely
completely on weighing machine and take photographs to track your progress.
TAKE SOME PROVEN SUPPLEMENTS (OPTIONAL)
